schmidt hammer lassen architects wins the competition for the International Criminal Court in The Hague

After years of accommodation in temporary premises, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has revealed its design for new permanent headquarters by schmidt hammer lassen architects (SHL).  The Danish office was selected in a prestigious architectural design competition with a twenty strong international shortlist including David Chipperfield, Mecanoo Architecten, OMA/Search, Ingenhoven, Wiel Arets, and Kengo Kuma & Associates.
Image courtesy SHL Architects

“To the victims, to their families and to the world, the ICC building must communicate respect, trust and hope. This building cannot be anonymous; it must have the courage to express the values and the credibility of the ICC,” said Bjarne Hammer, Co-Founding Partner and Creative Director of schmidt hammer lassen architects. He continued: “The building is designed as an abstract and informal sculpture in the landscape. This way, it becomes a backdrop for the ICC to communicate trust, hope, and most importantly, faith in justice and fairness.”

Image courtesy SHL Architects

Located close to the North Sea, the new Court is placed between nature and city, set in the rolling dune landscape at the edge of The Hague.  The main concept is the sculptural arrangement of buildings in the landscape and the design of a landmark that conveys the eminence and authority of the ICC while at the same time relating to a human scale.  Schmidt hammer lassen´s winning design complies with a complex brief and captures the spirit of the ICC. The overall building form can be seen as an undulating composition of volumes on the horizon, reminiscent of the dune landscape. “It was evident that connecting the dune landscape with the edge of the city had a striking potential. By designing a compact building with a small footprint, we propose to return the landscape to the city,” said Bjarne Hammer.

Image courtesy SHL Architects

According to the Architectural Jury, the design provides the ICC with a sculptural composition of square towers. The Jury quoted this approach as “a very impressive and interesting architectural gesture and a great contribution to the city with an attractive integration into the landscape. This applies also for the idea of ‘moving down’ to the Court through the spacious staircase. The big and sharp incision in the landscape and the lower ground floor are very interesting elements. The inner atmosphere is confirmed as user-friendly, especially the spacious ground floor with beautiful daylight from above. This ground floor can be seen as an inner private park area which facilitates the interaction between all the ICC employees in a very pleasant and positive way.”

Image courtesy SHL Architects

By making a sharp incision into the ground the building complex forms a contrast to the surrounding dune landscape. The architectural idea is to continue the gardens in the ground floor (parterre) level of the building as a cladding of the Court Tower.
“Gardens have always existed as part of all cultures and all religions. With flowers and plants from each of the 110 ICC member countries, the parterre gardens rise up as a green landmark and a symbol of unity, regardless of nationality and culture,” explained Bjarne Hammer.

Image courtesy SHL Architects

Environmental sustainability is a key criterion in terms of the building’s footprint and the selection of building materials. The facades of the office buildings are clad in a composite material selected for its suitability to the windy and salty local climate, ease of maintenance and security performance. The material is normally used in the bodywork of professional race cars and in the cladding of windmills due to its durability.  The design has at this stage been assessed as BREEAM Excellent.

Image courtesy SHL Architects

Image courtesy SHL Architects

Facts about the new permanent premises of the International Criminal Court (ICC)

Client
The International Criminal Court (ICC)

Area
46,000 m2, up to 1,200 work places

Construction sum
€190 million ex. VAT

Competition
2008-2010, restricted international competition with a total of 171 applications

Facts about the International Criminal Court (ICC)

The International Criminal Court (ICC), governed by the Rome Statute, is the first permanent, treaty-based, international criminal court established to end impunity for perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. The Court is mandated to prosecute crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, when national courts are unable or unwilling to do so. As of 1 March 2010 the Rome Treaty has been ratified by 110 States.

The ICC is an independent international organisation, and is not part of the United Nations system. The legal basis for the organisation is the Rome Statute adopted in 1998. Although the Court’s expenses are funded primarily by States Parties, it also receives voluntary contributions from governments, international organisations, individuals, corporations and other entities.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Louis B. Susman, and Acting Director of the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, Adam Namm, announced today that KieranTimberlake of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has won the design competition for the New London Embassy.KieranTimberlake’s design met the goal of creating a modern, welcoming, timeless, safe and energy efficient embassy for the 21st century. Their concept most fully satisfied the requirements outlined in the design competition’s mission statement. The concept holds the greatest potential for developing a truly iconic embassy and is on the leading edge of sustainable design. KieranTimberlake is an architectural firm known for its commitment to innovation and environmental responsibility.

Starting with 37 architectural submissions, the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations narrowed the number to a shortlist of nine firms. A distinguished jury of both American and British leaders in the fields of architecture, academia and diplomacy selected four firms for the final phase of the competition.

The four firms explored the symbolism of the embassy, its presence and position in the cityscape of London. Their goal was to create a building and site complex with a timeless quality to appropriately represent the United States of America in the United Kingdom.

The four competing architectural firms KieranTimberlake, Morphosis Architects, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, and Richard Meier & Partners worked for nearly a year and made presentations to the jury which then recommended the winning design.

As KieranTimberlake moves forward with the design of the building, the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations and KieranTimberlake will be actively engaged in the consultation and planning process involving the Mayor’s office, the Wandsworth Borough Council, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, as well as residents in the area to ensure that the new embassy provides an appropriate home for the United States of America in London.

The anticipated ground breaking on this landmark embassy will be in 2013 with a goal to complete the construction in 2017.

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Holographic Architectural Imaging by Zebra from Core77 on Vimeo.

This is the work from Unit One Design sdn bhd led by John Ding and Ken Wong. The project recently received WAN AWARDS 2009 for residential category. It’s called Leisure Farm Villas located in  Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
Concept :
The integration of three individual sites and the design and construction of a complex of five separate buildings for a single client. The complex consists of the main house for the parents [currently put on hold], an orchard, and four individual villas where ‘most of the walls are views’, one for each child, all linked by landscaped walkways. The scope of works included the master plan for the complex, down to the design and selection of individual pieces of furniture for each space, a fully integrated design.

Photo©Mr Albert Lim KS of Albert Lim KS Photographer

Main House :
The final piece of the overall jigsaw, it is composed of three wings in total, each forming new gardens and courtyards created by walls or difference in levels, so the living spaces will have views of the entire site. Sited towards the apex of the site in totality, the house acts as a wall embracing the project where the villas and the orchard are situated [the eastern part of the site] which is the private domain of the development.

Overall Site Plan Courtesy Unit One Design

Orchard :

A crucial design element, the orchard is situated within the large landscaped zone that occupies one third of the overall complex. It is the focus of the villas and main house in terms of siting, planning and outlook and will produce a variety of fruits to be used by family and friends.

To address both the scale of the landscaped zone and the individual villas the area the orchard occupies is similar to the villas and has been structured by a series of low pathways and an elevated walkway. The low pathways align with the boundary wall between villas and provide access for the picking of ripe fruit and general orchard maintenance. The elevated walkway spans between two water bodies, the retention pond in the corner of the orchard to the water feature and pavilion of the main house, providing pedestrian access through the orchard canopy.

A large retention pond defines the extent of the orchard and anchors the corner of the complex. Water is harvested from the landscape and is stored within the retention pond before being reused on the orchard and other gardens. When matured the orchard will produce fruit, create dense pockets of vegetation in a sparse landscape, a unique outlook and a visual extension of each villa

Overall Site Plan Courtesy Unit One Design

The Villas :
The individual villas were designed for the children, responding to the natural fall of the site and in anticipation of the future views to a man made landscape. Each villa has been offset both in plan and vertically to provide privacy and definition of the single villas. Increased seperation of the villas is achieved through the introduction of lower ground courtyards. The entrances have limited openings to afford privacy for each family and a solid base from which the villa extends. The dominant feature of the design is the roof plane, cantilevering out six metres it provides shade from the rain on the more open side of the villa and acts as a strong expression in contrast to the subdued context. A long driveway from the main entry of the complex drops under and through the landscaping of the main house and provides vehicle access to the villas. The approach ends under a dramatic canopy, bounded on both sides by sloping landscaped planes.

Photo©Mr Albert Lim KS of Albert Lim KS Photographer

The planning of each space sought to maximise views, light and ventilation, resulting in spaces of varying character. The ground level contains the public domain for the villas, consisting of the kitchen, laundry, dining and living spaces. As the occupant moves through the level, from the entrance to the landscape, the space increases from single height to double height. The floor finish is in-situ white terrazzo, reflecting the roof plane above, and contributing to a restrained materials palette. It finishes flush with the lawn, demarcated by a channel that collects and discharges any rain or surface water.

The dining space overlooks a courtyard below, screened from the neighbours by a combination of trees and climbing creepers. The double height living space terminates in operable vertical glazing that continues to the roof plane, affording full views of the orchard and the ability to open the entire facade. The immediate landscape, bordered by a concrete edge divorces the ‘wilder’ orchard from the more formal manicured lawn directly outside the living space. All the doors are designed to be fully flexible to allow for spaces on the ground level to be totally opened out towards the tropical landscape.

The volume extending from the entrance to the orchard and from the ground up has no ‘walls’. A mezzanine has been inserted, accommodating either an additional living space or bedroom, and is a subtle expansion of space. The occupant is aware of the entrance canopy as it penetrates into the space on the mezzanine level, acting as a bench seat with views to the north or as a low shelf. The bathroom overlooks a three-storey courtyard enclosed in metal, encouraging the occupant to open the bathroom to the courtyard and freely use the space with no fear of being observed.

Extending from the mezzanine are two light walkways, the eastern walkway provides access to the facade of adjustable screens, allowing individual occupants to control the amount of privacy they would like from their neighbours and adjust sun penetration throughout the days and seasons. The western walkway is a balcony, extending through the structural elements it provides a high external vantage point over the complex, its cantilever mimicking the roof plane. The joinery works on the mezzanine level were designed not to touch the ceiling, in order to conserve the purity of the roof as a protective shading element. A discreet study occupies the corner of this level, creating a private and quiet zone, within a much larger shared open space; fully glazed, it embraces the distant views.

Photo©Mr Albert Lim KS of Albert Lim KS Photographer

The private domain on the basement holds the bedrooms; more conventional in its arrangement but unusual in the sense that the bedrooms are on the lower floor, as opposed to the first floor typically found throughout South East Asia. Full height sliding doors allows each bedroom to completely open out onto their own lower private courtyard. The treesplanted on the lower ground courtyard will eventually provide added privacy between the villas in the form of a foliage screen seen from the ground level.

Consistent with the entire complex a high level of design detail has been applied to the basement level; clusters of small ‘light lenses’ from the ground level above allow light to enter the shared passageway at the basement level. ‘Secret’ doors disguise the two store rooms adjacent to, and under, the folding timber stairs and the shared bathroom opens to the courtyard, its timber doors increasing privacy to the adjacent bedroom. Pedestrian connection between each villa is encouraged on the orchard side. Long timber decks, parallel to the dining and living spaces, extend out from the villa and hovering above the existing landscape before returning through a small space in the concrete boundary wall to the neighbouring villa. The original idea of ‘where most of the walls are views’ remains

All Photo©Mr Albert Lim KS of Albert Lim KS Photographer

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Architects: Mount Fuji Architects Studio
Location: Meguro, Tokyo, Japan
Site area: 177.27 sqm
Building area: 106.33 sqm
Total floor area: 259.72 sqm
Project Year: 2006
Photo©Ryota Atarashi

This is a house to be built in Tokyo, for a movie producer couple.

This architecture is consisted by combining L-shaped blocks of reinforced concrete and sequential frames of box-shaped engineer-wood. We put bedrooms, film archive and galley in solid concrete part for security, and living room in engineer-wood part for openness. As material that consist an open space that is 6m in height, 5.5m in width, 14m in depth, we choose thin engineer-wood (38mmx287mm).

Main theme for this architecture is to bring out a sense of mass and material, which were denied by modern architecture which pursued “white, flat wall” as a style. We intentionally left the wood grain of mold on the surface of concrete, and choose textured stones and irons.

Photo©Ryota Atarashi

It goes without saying that a house is a relaxing place. A house like a white-cube, surrounded by flat, white walls everywhere, gives a person very abstract image. But that image could only be sensed when we use intellective part of our brain. The problem is that we’re not all-intellective-creature. For the people like this client, who do enough intellectual labor on a daily basis, white-cube would only bring sense of fatigue. The role of architecture, especially the ones for living, is to soothe the sensory side of people, not to stimulate the intellectual side. That’s my take.

Sure, intellectual living would have got some meaning as a fashion at the time when modern architecture was born. However, now that it became a part of everyday life, its identity has been lost. We have to examine whether our approach is rational or not every time we build architecture.

Architecture as Dialogue

We do not subscribe to the assertion that “the city is a problem and architecture is the answer”. That point of view is a pure product of modern architectural theory, which as such weighs very heavily on today’s architectural education programmes: What are the problems running through the city? What answers can architecture offer them? School trains us in the acquisition of this method of questioning. Student evaluation is based on this conceptual and rational system of question and answer. And it is doubtlessly relevant, if limited to academic training; architecture on paper, devoid of substance, remains at a level of abstract purity that allows it to theoretically resolve the problem posed by the city.

Photo©Ryota Atarashi

But with real architecture it is quite anther matter. Indeed, even when it is designed as a pure answer, architecture realized, from the moment it imposes “mass” and becomes a built object, never manages to get beyond the “city=problem” equation. Because many architects have not grasped the obviousness of this, an incalculable number of buildings have sprouted in the urban landscape through the conscious application of the lesson learned: “problem-solution.” Unfortunately, the legitimate and equitable “answer” expected often winds up being nothing more than deplorable “urban filler”. For in using this approach, the concrete situation of the city is rendered abstract, theorised and formalised as problem and turned into a set of logical systems which will in turn administer a logical architectural answer. It is useless and unsightly to reintroduce these relationships defined through the filter of conceptual labels into the material world in the form of buildings. the resulting built architecture is merely a superfluous residue.

We are doubtless the first generation to become aware of the reality of modernism’s limits. We sincerely and conscientiously avoid dealing with architecture through concepts as much as possible. For us, the city is from the outset imbued with “substance,” and the architectural process is the creation of “substance”.

Therefore, we seek to manipulate these concrete relationships, as they are, in all their concreteness. The relationship between pre-existing city and future architecture is never envisaged in a unilateral way, as one would do when bringing an answer to a question, but rather as a continuous and balanced “dialogue” between the old and the new “substance.”
This is what makes our point of view so childlike.

To act upon things simply, so they will actually become what one would wish for.

All Photo©Ryota Atarashi

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Australian architects Tony Owen Partners have designed a house overlooking Sydney harbor. They called it Moebius house.They applied the Micro Design parametric modeling software in the design process to achieve the best site responsive architecture.

Photo courtesy of Tony Owen Partners

This family house faces onto views of the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. The house explores a more environmentally sensitive form of design called ‘micro design’. Micro design utilises parametric modelling software which can respond to very small changes to design input criteria. The unique form is a response to the requirements to maintain view and solar corridors.

Photo courtesy of Tony Owen Partners

Tony Owen Architects started by responding to the site with a series of movements which folded and twisted the space in order to maximise the changes of level, view opportunities and potential for connectivity to outside spaces at various ground planes. They created a dynamic model capable of responding to changes in these variables and allowed the models to run in real time. The architects then stopped the model when they felt they had a model which satisfied their concerns.

Photo courtesy of Tony Owen Partners

The house has a fluidity of space which is a direct result of having a strong relationship with the surrounding landscape. Due to the complex geometry of this house and the need for such fine tolerances, we had to evolve a completely new system of fabrication and assembly for this house which more closely resembled that of a car.

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At a ceremony in the Jordanian capital, His Excellency Omar Maani, the mayor of Amman, announced the new King Abdullah II House of Culture & Art by Zaha Hadid Architects – a performing arts and cultural centre that includes a 1600-seat concert theatre, 400-seat theatre, educational centre, rehearsal rooms, and galleries.

Image Courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

At the directives of His Majesty King Abdullah II Ibn Al Hussein, the Greater Amman Municipality is creating a new venue for performing arts and culture in a prime location in the centre of Amman. Conceived as a place to rehearse, discuss, teach, study and perform, the King Abdullah II House of Culture & Art will be the premiere venue for theatre, music and dance performance and education in Jordan – a vital element in the cultural life of the city and country, bringing together all members of the community in the shared experience of art and music.

Image Courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

The architectural expression for the new performing arts centre has been inspired by the magnificent ancient city of Petra explains Zaha Hadid. “Petra is an astonishing example of the wonderful interplay between architecture and nature, as well as the intricate complexity and elegance of natural forms – the rose-colored mountain walls have been eroded, carved and polished to reveal the astonishing strata of sedimentation. We have applied these principles to articulate the public spaces within the centre, with eroded interior surfaces that extend into the public plaza in front of the building.”

Image Courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

Zaha Hadid Architects was awarded the project in June 2008 after an international competition that included Snøhetta (Norway), Atelier Christian de Portzamparc (France), Delugan Meissl (Austria), Henning Larsens Tegnestue (Denmark) and Kerry Hill Architects (Singapore). Mayor Maani announced today that the Greater Amman Municipality have now signed the contract with Zaha Hadid Architects to build the King Abdullah II House of Culture & Art.

Construction works are scheduled to begin in early 2012.

Zaha Hadid Architects

King Abdullah II House of Culture & Art Jordan : further information

KING ABDULLAH II HOUSE OF CULTURE & ART [AMMAN, JORDAN]
(2008 – tbc)
PROGRAM: Concert theatre: 1600 seat, Small theatre: 400 seat, Educational Centre and Galleries
CLIENT: The Greater Amman Municipality
ARCHITECT: Zaha Hadid Architects
Design: Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher
Project Director: Charles Walker
Project Architect: Tariq Khayyat
Competition Team: Maria Araya, Melike Altinisik, Dominiki Dadatsi, Renata Dantas,Sylvia Georgiadou,Britta
Knobel, Rashiq Muhamadali, Bence Pap, Eleni Pavlidou, Daniel Santos, Daniel Widrig, Sevil Yazici.
Structural Consultants Dar Al-Handasah, Beirut-Cairo
Mechanical& Environmental
Consultants Dar Al-Handasah, Beirut-Cairo
Theatre & Acoustics consultant : Artec Consultants Inc, NY-USA
Façade Engineers : Ramboll, London
Lighting Consultants: OVI , New York
King Abdullah II House of Culture & Art images / information from Zaha Hadid Architects

A new, ecological and social living space geared to the 21st century. It is a competition winning designed form LAN Architecture.

The project’s richness and major interest lie in the possibility of inventing an urban lifestyle set in a highly experimental framework enabling the affirmation of new ecological and contemporary architectures. The diversity of architectural propositions and communal and private spaces had to ensure and enhance this specificity.

4 Collective Housing Units, Diagram courtesy of LAN Architecture

The first stage was to ‘sculpt’ the volumes in order to exploit their urban potential and intrinsic spatial qualities. We directed our research towards a hybrid typology combining the house and the apartment. The principle underlying our approach was that of stacking containers, and careful study of habitat modes, climatic conditions and the sun’s trajectory throughout the year suggested the way to organise this. The project’s column-slab supporting structure has a system of lightweight façades providing ultra-high performance insulation levels.

4 Collective Housing Units, rendering courtesy of LAN Architecture

The relative narrowness of the buildings dictated a strategic search for compactness. The idea of variable compactness introduced the notion of a housing unit’s adaptability to seasons and times of day. All residents have the possibility of using their exterior space as a windbreak, a mini-greenhouse or, conversely, as a means of cooling or ventilating.

The morphology of each unit stems from the wish to develop housing units enabling a variety of uses very simply and with no extra technological input. We are therefore proposing cross-building units with adaptable exterior spaces and at least two different orientations.

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4 Collective Housing Units,All rendering & Diagram courtesy of LAN Architecture

Project credits / data

PROJECT: 4 Collective Housing Units
PROGRAM: Construction of a complex of apartments, shops and business premises.
LOCATION: Quartier Terres Neuves, Bègles (33)
COST: 6.5 M € HT
BUILT UP AREA: 6,500 m2
COMPETITION: 2009
COMPLETION: 2012

TEAM:
Lead architect: LAN Architecture
HEQ consultant: Agence Franck Boutté
Structure: Batiserf Ingénierie
Quantity surveyor: Michel Forgue
Fluids: LBE

CLIENT: Ataraxia, Saemcib
3D IMAGES: Rsi-studio.com

Photographer: Toshiyuki Yano

‘WRAP HOUSE’ is grouping and wrapping the three elements sunlight, spacious sense and privacy to enrich the living space.

The site is located in a flat residential quarter in the Southwest of Hiroshima City. As the site is from all sides surrounded by houses, one of which is directly bordering the site boundary, it was necessary to come up with the following architectural arrangement.

To create a bright and wide space while protecting one’s privacy despite the site’s restrictions, a wall wraps around the full site creating a ‘void’ on the north side while respecting the permitted floor area ratio. The north orientated living space is extended by a terrace, which is located adjacent to the parking space while facing the street to the north. In addition, considering the natural sunlight conditions for the neighboring house to the west, a pitched roof was chosen and a v-shaped wall is surrounding the ‘void’ on the east side. As a result, sunlight shines into the void in the morning and a ‘sunlight well’ is created. The collected sunlight is reflected by a white wall, and illuminates the room gently. In the early morning, sunlight enters the void from the east. As the sun rises further it shines through the upper window, and when the sun begins to decline light falls through the skylights.

Photographer: Toshiyuki Yano

Thus, as the way the light enters constantly changes from sunrise to sunset, the space changes with the flow of time. When the night comes, the diagonally cut wall appears while the scenery around it disappears. A space different to the daytime emerges.The external void space is perceived as an extension of the internal space, while the wrap-around wall is both protecting the privacy of the residence space against the surroundings and creating a spacious impression. The sky can be seen from the bathroom on first floor, while the car can be overlooked from the master bedroom.

Photographer: Toshiyuki Yano

The entrance for both residents and car is facing the road to the north and is formed by a part of the wall which can be opened and shut providing access to the void space. The sky framed by a diagonal wall extends to the top and an ash tree with a height of 6m penetrates the second floor terrace. This north side buffer zone, although not included in the legal building footprint, plays a role in maximizing the site’s potential.

“WRAP HOUSE” with its north facing void is a proposal of a new architectural style resulting from restrictions.

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